


Won't Back Down

by tehhumi



Series: There ain't no easy way out [1]
Category: Glowfic and Related Works, Silmaril (Glowfic), The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien, in color (glowfic)
Genre: Choose Your Own Ending, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Gen, Multiverse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-05-19 13:55:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14875022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tehhumi/pseuds/tehhumi
Summary: Telkam gets sent to another dimension, and arrives at a rather inconvenient time





	1. Aliens

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lintamande](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lintamande/gifts).



> Telkam is an AU version of Tyelcormo. He is from in color (glowfic.com/posts/803) by Alicorn and Lintamende.  
> Maglor and Maedhros originally belong to Tolkien, but this fic draws a lot from Lintamende's versions as well.

Ladah is an adult and is fine.  That’s what Telkam has been reassuring himself for the past three weeks, ever since a weird monster showed up in the middle of the set and teleported him to another planet. Another planet with two different alien species that were both Amentoid enough that he wouldn’t be surprised to see them in one of his scripts.  Another planet that had such an incredibly low tech level that what _Telkam_ could remember about ancient weaponry from school was seen as wildly impressive.  Another planet where major cities might have plumbing, but a camp full of refugees – stop. He landed on a casteless planet with lots of wilderness, he can join the army and the government’s not apparently about to massacre people over stupid shit. This sort of thing was his dream for years.  Focus on the fact that he’s arrived in a society with no castes where he can save people, not on what he’s missing from back home. Ladah is an adult and safe, Peka can tell him about his real parentage when it becomes important. He even thinks that the reds will be okay, with Isel and Atim working for them – and they’re self-sufficient enough by now to commit any acts of terrorism that they need without his help. 

Everyone is impressed by his knowledge of weapons, even if how little he knows about making them makes him wonder if it would have been better for these people Kefin had arrived instead.  He picks up the language more slowly than the Eldar (the incredibly tall telepathic immortal aliens with magic) seem to think it should take him, but the Humans (the moderately tall aliens who seem basically like casteless Amentans) are impressed. Telkam thinks about saying that he may be the stupid one of Afen Kisantami’s sons, but he’s _Afen Kisantami’s_ stupid son, and there’s no language he can’t eventually learn.  But saying that would just lead to blank looks, and he’s never going to see his family or anyone who’s ever heard of them again, so he doesn’t mention it.  He teaches the aliens how to build guns and catapults, and slowly learns how to do private thoughts, and trains with the army, and works out until he’s no longer the weakest soldier in it (he would feel more self-conscious about that if he didn’t spend all his time with greys back home), and takes occasional day long walks in the wilderness where he feels like he can finally breathe in a way he never could in Anitam.

 

And after six months Telkam learns that the reason Sirion’s government isn’t going to massacre people over stupid shit is because they’re the ones who are going to be massacred over stupid shit. Some Elda named Feanor designed incredibly beautiful gemstones, and his sons and all their people apparently kill anyone who tries to keep the gems from them.  For the most part that’s Melkor, the magical king who wants to rule all Humans and Orcs and kill all Eldar, but Sirion has a Silmaril and for some reason the Feanorians are attacking their allies first. Telkam does his best to explain airplanes and bombs and machine guns, but he knows that he doesn’t know enough to teach people how to build them on this manufacturing base. Still, he’s here, and he’s not going to let these people die if he can help it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Telkam uses his characteristic lateral thinking, go to chapter 2.  
> If Telkam focuses on the defense of the city, go to chapter 3, or chapter 4 if you want a happy story.


	2. Telkam's amazing Blue skills

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for threats of torture, and references to suicide, genocide, and rape.  
> Warning for delusional character - Maedhros believes that the last five centuries are a malicious hallucination orchestrated by Thauron.

Telkam has heard of the Sack of Doriath.  Everyone else in Sirion believes they can defeat the Feanorians, but then everyone believed that Rivik was going to send their reds to Miolee.  The kind of people who are willing to execute that many innocents, who hate people that much, aren’t going to stop just because Sirion can fight back. Sirion can make the Feanorians pay dearly for every inch of ground, but if someone doesn’t believe you have a right to exist, fighting for it will just piss them off, and there’s no Anitam to send green researchers in here.

He can’t think of a way to kill both Maedhros and Maglor, experienced generals of a terrible army that they are.  He might be able to kill one, but the alarm would be raised and Telkam would be killed, and that won't stop the army.  Suicide mission to assassinate whichever of the warlords he can reach is a decent Plan B though.

Telkam wonders if he’s setting some sort of record, the only person to rebel against the government on two planets.  He says that it’s possible some of his world’s technology can use power from the Silmaril, he could tell if he got a close look at it.  After everything he’s taught Sirion, and everything he can show the telepaths but doesn’t know well enough to teach, they believe him.  Some of the Eldar say that if this works, they might stand a chance not just surviving the Feanorians, but actually attacking Melkor.  On the way, Telkam focuses on how he has to reach the Silmaril to keep this from turning into another massacre, thinks of Rivik and Olvala and Biyan. When he sees the Silmaril, it’s actual beautiful enough to take his breath away for a moment.

Then Telkam grabs the Silmaril and bolts.  No one expected him to betray Sirion, the guards accompanying him are a formality and slow to react.  The archers are used to aiming for people a bit taller than him, those with rifles aren’t quite used to them yet, and Telkam manages to get out of sight long enough to reach the river.  He swims against the current. He surfaces when his lungs are about to give out, dives again, keeps swimming until he’s certain he's out of sight from the city. He climbs out and walks along the river until it gets dark, buries the Silmaril in a rabbit hole, and walks a bit farther.

Tomorrow Telkam will go negotiate with mass murderers – he wishes Aitim was here.

 

 

A short man with odd hair – the roots are _green_ , and the rest of it is nearly white even though he looks less than forty years old – approaches the Feanorian camp outside Sirion. He says, in oddly accented Sindarin, “Sirion doesn’t have your fucking gem anymore.  If you turn around and go home, I’ll tell you where it is.”  The soldier on watch relays this to Maedhros.  Maedhros of course goes to talk with this person, and supposes that the oath forcing him to negotiate would be better than the oath forcing him to kill a city if this were real and he could form preferences that weren’t about the Silmarils. He dispatches scouts to find the man’s trail, as only an idiot would attempt to negotiate while carrying a Silmaril with them.

Thauron is getting sloppy. There’s no plausible reason why this human should look like Celegorm.  Maedhros wonders if this scenario has all been a convoluted lead up to keep him from fighting while his brother fucks him.

The human who looks like Celegorm has imperfect control over his public/private thoughts distinction, but is very focused on how the Feanorians are all evil murderers.  After Doriath, Maedhros is used to that. 

“You claim Sirion no longer has the Silmaril?”

“They don’t. I stole it.”

“Why?”

“You were going to slaughter us.  We would have killed a lot of your army, but idiots will keep killing people they hate even when it's pointless.”

“We don’t actually hate anyone in Sirion, but yes, we would've kept fighting even through heavy losses. What do you want from us?”

“You turn around and go home.  You swear to it.  You swear to leave Sirion alone.  You swear not to harm anyone from Sirion.  Then I’ll tell you where the Silmaril is, and go on my way.” 

“That would leave me in a terrible position if you’re lying. Or if anyone from Sirion betrays it to Morgoth. Contradictory oaths are incredibly painful, and I doubt that you want Angband to wipe out Sirion any more than you want us to.”

“I really don’t care what happens to you or anyone in your army.” _Drowning in garbage_ slips across the man’s mind. “If you can think of a way to swear it so that Sirion is safe, do that.  If not, you’ll have to find another way to get your bauble.”

“I swear that we will not release you until you tell us where the Silmaril is.” Another oath, another way fate and Thauron can play with him. Perhaps if Maedhros swears off enough courses of action he’ll be too boring to keep alive, even if the Oath won’t let him die outright. “It really is best for you and Sirion if you just give us the Silmaril, and we don’t have to kill anyone for it. You’ll go home safely and so will we.”

The man – he hadn’t given his name, that would have itched at one point – _grinned_ at that. “I’m too far from my family to ever go home, and a traitor in Sirion.  Swear that Sirion is safe or come up with better threats, Elda.” 

Either of those might be enough to get the Silmaril. Maedhros has an actual choice he can make for the first time in years.  On the other hand, doing the minimum necessary to satisfy the Oath hasn’t helped so far. “I swear that if you give me the Silmaril, we will return to Amon Ereb, and not attack Sirion or its citizens unless they attack us, have a Silmaril, or are working for Morgoth.  If you keep the Silmaril from me, I will use all that I learned in Angband to make you tell me.”

The man startles at that.  “You – fine. It took me most of the day to walk here from the Silmaril. With horses and Eldar, you should have it in a few hours.  I can lead the way.”  An image of a riverbank slips out, but then the man closes his thoughts again.

Maedhros could try to force the man think of the Silmaril’s hiding place, but it would likely only slow things down. The Oath is satisfied for the moment, as are the new ones.  “Agreed. Break down the camp, we leave now.  Maglor, you have custody of the prisoner.” _He looks like a human Tyelcormo_ , he warns.

 

 

The negotiation goes faster than Telkam anticipated. He is brought to meet an Elda matching descriptions of the warlord Maedhros himself, who luckily doesn’t mind the lack of diplomatic pleasantries.  The implication that the Feanorians swore an oath about their gems explains some things, but just means they cared little enough about other people’s lives to swear it in the first place. If Telkam had actual training to be the military commander he’s acting like, he might be able to resist torture long enough to get a better deal, but he honestly doesn’t know the language or the politics well enough to think of a better oath than Maedhros just gave. Giving in to someone threatening him goes against every instinct he has, but he as far as he can tell that's what all of politics is about.

Telkam is aware that his release was not actually agreed on, but he can probably still commit suicide if they decide to just torture him for kicks, and Sirion is safe. He turns to look as his prison guard approaches –

“Makel?!”  It’s not, this is an Elda, but other than that he looks identical.  Feanor, Telkam distantly recalls hearing, had seven sons.  All of them but Maedhros and Maglor are dead. Maedhros is Feanor’s eldest son. If Aitim had been tortured for years, he might look like Maedhros. Telkam is suddenly far less sure that he got a satisfactory oath. 

“That’s not my name, prisoner.” Maglor-who-looks-like-Makel responds.

“And my name is ‘Telkam’, not prisoner. How am I showing you the way to your fucking Silmaril?”  So these aliens look like his brothers.  They aren’t and he’s never going to see his brothers again, same as yesterday. Nothing has changed. He remembers hearing that the brain can’t make up faces in dreams, it was a lyric in one of Makel’s songs that was actually based on scientific fact that led Dad and . This leads back to the conclusion he made his first week here, that if it’s a dream nothing matters except to his own conscience and if it’s real he should save as many people as he can.  Maglor looking like Makel means he probably shouldn’t say anything about Ladah or Peka out loud, just in case – and he should do private thoughts, just because the murderers look like his brothers doesn’t mean they aren’t murderers or that he can trust them.

“On horseback, you’ll ride with me.”

Telkam rides in front of Maglor with his hands bound, and starts humming bits of Makel’s songs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this story, Amras died at Losgar and Amrod at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.  
> Telkam's adventures as a Feanorian captive continue in Chapter 5


	3. Victory over the Kinslayers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for major character death

Not bombs or airplanes, but cannons and cross bows and ballistae with magazines and layered defenses and shelling your own positon and clearcutting the forest so they have a line of sight two miles out. Is there still time to build a bastion fort?

 

When the Feanorians come, it works. The first layer of defenses holds out just long enough to get the Feanorians close.  Then they release the dam, and everyone on ground level is swept away. Most of the civilians made it to the fortress.  The Eldar in Sirion are good at spotting – and shooting –  figures with eight-pointed stars or suspiciously good armor who are clinging to the roofs of buildings.

The water goes down slowly.  Sirion just killed nearly all the Feanorian army, as well as a tenth of its own citizens.  All of the Feanorian soldiers who didn’t drown have turned and fled – all but one. If the height and the hair didn’t make it obvious, the knife in place of his right hand would.  He’s smart, manages to use what little cover there is to get close. 

Dozens of arrows are shot, some hitting armor and some flesh.  Still, Maedhros the Kinslayer reaches the walls.  Egalmoth leaps down from beside Telkam to confront the warlord. There is an odd look in Maedhros’ face for a moment as he looks at the battlement, but it doesn’t slow him down.  Within moments it becomes clear that Maedhros is by far the better swordsman, and Egalmoth is forced to fight on the defensive.  

Telkam sees an opening. He shoots, Maedhros stumbles, and Egalmoth delivers a killing blow.  The battle is over. Sirion won.

They don’t let down their guard, though. Scouts go out, and confirm the Feanorian army is in retreat.  Elwing declares that Sirion can’t be certain of their safety until they have know the Sons of Feanor are all dead.  

There’s too many dead to bury, it will have to be a pyre. People go out to move the bodies, and identify those they know. Telkam goes with them.  It doesn’t matter that no one from Amenta will ever know, he claimed reds aren’t disgusting and castes are bullshit, and he’s not going to be a hypocrite and avoid red work.  He carries half a dozen bodies over.  When he sees the next one, he recoils. 

Telkam’s shout brings in others. “It’s Maglor!”  “We found Maglor Feanorian’s body, they’re all dead!” “We’re finally safe!” “The Sons of Feanor are all dead!” “The last of the Kinslayers is dead!” 

Telkam just stays where he fell to his knees, wondering if the Eldar’s mumblings about fate had something to them after all.  Why else would the murderer have his brother's face?


	4. The Sack of Sirion

Telkam teaches Sirion about machine guns and caltrops and landmines and ballistae and concrete bunkers and anything that a pre-industrial city can use to quickly fortify.  He has no idea what caste teaching primitive societies about historical weapons development is, but castes are bullshit and he knows about the technology and he’s here.  Sirion gets stronger, but everyone gets more and more nervous by the day.  Telkam wonders if they’re strong enough.

The Feanorians arrive. The road is mined, and a few dozen enemy soldiers die. They leave the road, but keep coming. The cannons pick off some before they reach the city walls, but the guns eventually jam and gunpowder is limited.  Someone with a rifle shoots at of the warlords, but he has magic armor and barely stumbles. Some of the Feanorians are turning aside, or dying, but not nearly enough.  They reach the gates, and Telkam knows Sirion is lost. 

Telkam really wants to fire the stupid gem out of a cannon right into Maedhros’s fucking face, if he wants it so badly.  It might even be useful, get the Feanorians confused enough some people can get away, but he doesn’t think he can convince anyone part with the Silmaril for “might”.

Last time, the Feanorians didn’t get their Silmaril, and killed the royal family in revenge. The princes aren’t even two Amentan years old. Telkam isn’t useful on the front lines, but maybe he can still save _someone_ , this can’t be as good as Evalee but maybe it won't be another Rivik.

Prince Elros and Price Elrond have only one guard in their room. If you can call her a guard, Nellas is actually the prince’s nanny, a face Telkam recognizes quite well after this past spring.

“We need to move the princes. They’re not safe here”

“And they’ll be more safe in the middle of a battlefield than in the castle?”

“If the Feanorians find them, they’ll be slaughtered like their uncles were. We can’t hold the city.”

“You want to just surrender?”

“I doubt they’d accept it. I want to keep the kids alive. Let me through.”

She steps aside, and Telkam enters the room. The princes are crying – right Telkam was talking about how everyone’s going to die and the kids aren’t red, they’ve grown up believing no one will murder them on a whim. He eventually manages to calm them down enough to get them moving, he has a son, he knows how to handle scared kids. 

They take side streets and Elros and Elrond learn what the face of an Elda who’s just had their throat cut looks like (not much different from an Amentan who’s been shot, in Telkam’s eyes), but the three of them get out.

 

Telkam has a dagger, a sword, a chainmail vest, and wilderness survival skills for the tropics of a different planet.  He ditches the vest, it’s heavy and any Elda that wants to kill him could shoot him the head before he could see them coming. They walk upstream along the river Sirion.  Telkam switches off which twin he’s carrying every hour, having the other walk.

He doesn’t have a destination in mind. The only other Elda city he’s heard of is the Isle of Balar, and Telkam doesn’t know how to build a boat. There are rumors of Dwarven cities, and maybe in a few days the kids will be calm enough they can figure out where those are.

By nightfall, Elros is crying again, Elrond is complaining that he’s hungry, and they’ve walked maybe four miles.  It’s not nearly far enough to be safe, but the kids can’t walk much farther and Telkam can’t carry them both at once.  They go a hundred yards from the river (not far enough), and Telkam finds a bush to hide under.  It’s scratchy and the ground is cold and he can’t risk a fire and the kids are crying, but he hums one of Makel’s songs until they fall asleep.

 

In the morning, Telkam tries to come up with a plan.  They need food, they need to stay away from orcs and Feanorians, they need shelter before this planet’s too-quick seasons change and winter comes around again. The best he comes up with is to stick to the river for now, forage for food as they travel, see if they can find a smaller creek or something that feeds the river, follow that upstream, build a shack and raise two alien hybrid kids in complete isolation from society.

On the plus side Telkam does not feel uniquely unqualified to handle this situation. Of everyone he knows, he has the most experience in raising kids who were kidnapped to save their lives. 

Digging up random plants while the kids are asleep reveals some things that strongly resemble to the carrots and potatoes there were in Sirion, hopefully just a wild variety, not poisonous. They taste weird raw, but no worse than expected.  Telkam sticks to root vegetables as he’s pretty sure berries are more commonly poisonous, something about evolving to only allow birds to eat them.  He wakes the kids when he has enough food for the three of them for breakfast; little kids can’t walk all day even if their lives depend on it so he can forage again at lunch.  They set off.

“Where are we going?” Elrond asks.

“Upstream.  We need fresh water to survive and I don’t have a canteen.”

“That’s not a destination.”

“You’re right, it isn’t”

After a mile, Telkam sets Elrond down and picks Elros up.

“Where’s our mother?” Elros asks.

“I don’t know. Hopefully she got out too.”

“Are we going home soon?”

“No, home – isn’t safe now, the Feanorians attacked.”

“Will we ever go home?”

“After a while.  When it’s safe enough, we'll go back and find everyone else.” If there is anyone else. 

“How long a while?”

“– two months.  Longer if there are Feanorians around.  If we see any, we add a month.”

“That’s a long time.”

“Maybe. How about you keep track of it? I’ll make you both walking sticks. You can carve a notch every day.”

“Why not just write it down?”

“Don’t have any paper.”

They get another couple miles in by midday, and Telkam lights a fire to cook the vegetables while the twins nap. They find his tributary stream that afternoon, and the plan is looking good so far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: If Telkam had waited another ten minutes, Nellas (the nanny) would have returned with food and spare clothes for Elros and Elrond, and this escape would be far more comfortable.  
> Elros and Elrond with a different foster-dad than usual continues in Chapter 6


	5. Discussing the prisoner

Maedhros, Maglor rode closely together.  They left most of their army at the camp, they’d move quicker that way.  They sent a few scouts out, in case he was leading them into a trap, but that honestly didn’t seem likely.

“So,” Maglor asked Maedhros over osanwë, “What are doing with Telkam?”

“What do you mean? He’s leading us to the Silmaril.  After that, I suppose we let him go.”

“He’s unarmed and completely alone. With all the orcs around here, he won’t survive a week; we’d be as good as slitting his throat.”

“We can do that instead if you want. It’s a cleaner.”

“We’re not killing prisoners just for convenience.”

“Right of course, we’re the moral ones.  That’s why we were on our way to sack Sirion.”

“Maedhros –”

“Spare me it.  He didn’t seem like he’d mind it much if we did kill him.”

“Tyelcormo of all of us would want to live. The only reason he didn’t bargain for his life is because you swore to torture him!”

“The torture threat was a separate sentence, not an oath; I’m not that insane.  And that isn’t Tyelcormo, he died in Doriath alongside Curufinwe and Carnistir. Unless you’re saying death doesn’t work in this scenario, in which case I’ll be far more interesting if you bring Findekano back.”

“I’m saying I don’t know how death works for _us_ anymore. ‘to the everlasting darkness doom us if our deed faileth.’  I’m not sure we get the comparative comfort of Mandos. Men go beyond the world after they die.  What if this is Tyelcormo, reborn as a man? Luthien made the choice, perhaps we did as well.”

“Your plausibility is dropping incredibly quickly.”

“Humor me Nelyo.”

“You’re relying far too much on what’s poetic then.  There’s no reason why us not going to Mandos means we get a mortal life after this.”

“But he recognized us –”

“Yes, he recognized you, and you’re _still alive_.  Seven sons of Afen – Ambarussa both died years before Tyelcormo. He should think he’s one of three brothers.”

“There’s still something odd going on. Can you honestly tell me that he doesn’t act like Tyelcormo?

Maedhros doesn’t admit that he’s having trouble telling which two are closest – his memories of Tylecormo at in Valinor, the hallucination who thought Doriath would yield the Silmaril if they came in with overwhelming force (never mind Aqualonde), or the hallucination who thought stealing a Silmaril and bargaining with Oath-bound murderers was a good idea.  Oh, that it explains it though, this simulation is for A/B testing – is the versions of his brother driven slowly mad more or less plausible than the one who hates him and is the wrong species?  All Maedhros actually says is, “We know there are shapeshifting Maia, and Thauron has more than enough of my memories to impersonate any of you.”

“I won’t kill him. Not as long as there’s any chance he’s really our brother.  We’re not that much of kinslayers.”

“Yet.”

“Fine, yet, you’re right and we’ll probably end up killing each other in the end. The prisoner?”

“If you want to keep him captive, I won’t stop you. Don't expect me to help though.”

“Thank you. I feel rather like when I finally convinced you that a pet cat was a great idea.”

“Yes.  The cat grew old and died, and you were very sad when it did. Perhaps you have a gift for prophecy.”

Maglor ignores Maedhros, and instead focuses on their prisoner. Telkam has been singing in a non-Elvish language, and more importantly, in a musical style Maglor’s never heard of.

“What are you singing?”

“A dance song.”

“I can’t think of any dancing I’ve seen that would fit that rhythm. Is it common where you’re from?”

“Everyone’s heard it.  I wouldn’t expect you to know it though.”

“Why?  I’m quite a well-known musician myself.”

“Too far.”

Telkam does not seem any more inclined to idle chat than Tyelcormo. “Why are you singing?”

“To piss you off.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going to alternate chapters of this and the one where Telkam rescues Elros and Elrond from here on out.  
> This chapter would be longer, but it was at 666 words.  
> Telkam is specifically trying to piss Maglor off, because otherwise he's going to say something that pisses off Maedhros and he knows that Aitim would not hesitate. He'll save annoying Maedhros for when he's being tortured.


End file.
